1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a technique for managing the position of an information processor that is asset of a company, and particularly to a system and a method for managing the geographical position of the information processor against the lost or stolen case.
2. Background Art
As a system for managing the position of an information processor having a communication function such as a portable personal computer, there has been proposed a system in which a position detector such as a GPS position detector is mounted on the information processor and a position information reporting mail including the position information of this processor detected by the position detector and the identification information (ID inherent in the device) of this processor is transmitted to a management device through the Internet, hence to manage the above position of each information processor on the side of the management device (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
As a system for managing the position of electronic equipment such as IC card having no power source, there has been proposed a system in which a GPS position detector is mounted on the electronic equipment and, when this electronic equipment is installed in an access device such as a personal computer and power is supplied, the position information including the position of this equipment detected by the position detector and the IP address of an access device and the identification information of this equipment (equipment ID) are uploaded to a management device through the Internet, hence to manage the position of each electronic equipment on the side of the management device (for example, refer to Patent Document 2).
As a technique for controlling a network connection in order to ensure security of a network, there has been proposed a technique for transferring the device information of this processor (MAC address, name of machine, IP address, and the like) to a management device through the network at the timing when the information processor communicates with other device through the network, calculating a risk value based on the device information received at the side of the management device, and controlling the propriety of connection from the information processor to the network according to the calculated risk value (for example, refer to Patent Document 3).    Patent Document 1 Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 2003-234828    Patent Document 2 Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 2006-31244    Patent Document 3 Japanese Patent Publication Laid-Open No. 2006-66982
The system which controls the position with the position detector such as the GPS position detector mounted on an information processor, has a benefit that the geographical position of the information processor lost or stolen may be detected with high precision, but it has a problem that the cost is high.
Though the system which uses IP address as the positional information as shown in the Patent Document 2 is difficult to detect the position with high precision, it may reduce the cost because the position detector is not necessary. However, since the IP address assigned for an information processor is the local IP address in the environment in which the NAT (Network Address Translation) operates, the local IP address may be transferred to the management device as the positional information. The local IP address is an address which can be used freely in a plurality of network organizations and it does not correspond to the geographical position in one to one. Therefore, it is impossible to manage the accurate position of an information processor.